Winners of 18th Asian Games felicitated

September 3: Minister for Youth and Sports Jagat Bahadur Biswakarma has felicitated the winners of the 2018 Asian Games.

Amid a program held at Rastriya Sabha Griha in the capital Minister Biswakarma said that the Government would try it’s best to help the players perform better in the up coming international competitions.

Congratulating the men’s team of paragliding for grabbing silver at the Games, Minister Biswakarma said the players would be also sent for international training held abroad to perform better and increase their morale, for international standards.

The Nepali paragliders had grabbed the first 2018-Asiad medal in cross-country paragliding at the Gunung Mas Puncak in West Java, Indonesia after the interval of 20 years.

The Asian Games were held from August 18 to September 2, 2018.

On the occasion, Member Secretary of National Sports Council (Nepal) Keshav Bista, Chairman of Nepal Olympic Committee Jivan Ram Shrestha, President of Nepal Paragliding and Hang Gliding Rup Narayan Shrestha along others praised the winning team for their performance and wished for better display.

Although the paragliding race was affected by weather conditions, Nepal performed exceptionally well to finish second to Japan to secure the medal at the Asiads.

The authorities had to trim the task duration from 25 kilometres to 12.5 kilometres.

Nepal ran only short of 28 points to beat Japan for the Gold.

In 1998 Sarita Rajbhandari had bagged a silver medal in Taekwondo at Bankok to make Nepal proud.

Paragliding has been introduced in the Asian Games for the first time this year.

Nepal had participated in 29 games altogether and 8 players had participated in paragliding event.